Clarke: endurance with the talent

A LOT of cricket is a waiting game, but Michael Clarke always seems like he's on his feet - even off the ground, whether it's pacing the dressing room or shuffling up and down the aisle on flights.

It's not nerves. There is good reason why Clarke is constantly trying to keep himself upright in between batting, fielding and occasionally bowling. The Australian captain has suffered from degenerative back problems for more than half his life, but has become as masterful at handling the problem as he has been with bat in hands throughout 2012.

At a time when his younger teammates (admittedly fast bowlers) are falling around him, Clarke has been the ironman of the Test side, having batted the equivalent of two full days in Test matches this year, all the while handling a debilitating back condition.

Jock Campbell, the former physical performance manager with Cricket Australia, can recall Clarke once standing the duration of a four-hour bus ride across Sri Lanka to avoid aggravating the back problems he first developed when trying to bowl fast in his early teens.

Campbell said Clarke deserved credit for the way he looked after himself, with the support of the Australian team's medical staff, which had laid the platform for the batsman's brilliant year.

''It's fantastic. Every player who plays long-term has injury issues because it's a year-round sport, it's brutal on the body, and then you throw in the travel,'' Campbell said.

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''He gets everything he deserves. For him to score double hundreds and a triple hundred, there's no fluke to it. That's just hard bloody work.''

Clarke has struggled with back problems for the duration of his time in the national team. At one point during the 2005 Ashes series he had to lay flat for a day after stiffening up at training, while in 2009 he was sent home early from the Champions Trophy after his problems flared from a taxing travel schedule.

But by prioritising his commitments - he sat out from the Big Bash League last week to ensure he could play in the first Test against Sri Lanka - and devoting himself to self-inflicted boot camps, strengthening exercises, muscle manipulation, pool sessions and proper rest, he has never missed a Test through injury and is now indispensable.

His achievements have not gone unnoticed. After another double century last month, against South Africa in Adelaide, team doctor John Orchard tweeted his congratulations to physiotherapist Alex Kountouris for helping keep Clarke on the field.

Kountouris tweeted in reply: ''It's a team effort. We both know how incredibly professional & driven @mclarke23 is. His success is not by accident!''

Campbell said back problems were an occupational hazard for international cricketers given the amount of hunching over a bat, ducking, diving in the field, running, bowling, throwing and travelling they did. He said it was during Clarke's 329 against India in January - one of four knocks this year that lasted six hours or more - he realised how effectively the skipper had not allowed his back problems to prevent him becoming an elite player.

''It was not just that he'd scored 300, but during that knock he was pushing hard for twos, threes. That to me says he's fit, fast and strong and looking after his body beautifully,'' Campbell said. ''I remember asking 'Tubby' [Mark Taylor] how hard he was running in that third hundred [in Pakistan in 1998] and he said 'Oh mate, I wasn't doing much running, I was cooked', and that was as fit as he ever was.

''So for Michael to be exploding into twos and threes at that point, that tells me a lot.''